"So, Publius, this is the valley of the famous dragon's nests. I had forgotten how magnificent it is. " He nodded towards a newly dug hole in the hillside. "I presume that is one of them?"
"Yes. And there's another down there to your left. And one more to your right, across there. Seven of them in all, General. "
"Seven. I can see only four. And each of them has yielded you a skystone?"
"Yes. "
"So what is worrying you? Are there no more?"
"Oh, there's more. I've found ten that I haven't dug for yet. But they are all too small. " I hawked and spat. "The largest of the seven I have came from the largest 'nest' I could find. The nests are really impact rings, thrown up by the force of the stones' landing. The biggest of those is twelve long paces across. "
"Twelve paces?" Caius began to gnaw his lower lip. "Varrus, " he said at last, "I have to be honest. I know I've said this before, and I know you're probably sick of hearing it, but even if your stone did fall from the sky, my mind cannot grasp the prospect of a stone that small falling hard enough to blast an impression that big. "
"No more can mine, General. " I tried hard to keep my voice impassive.
"But the fact remains: it happened. Believe me. It fell. And it created that impact ring. Only God Himself can know where it came from. Perhaps it fell from a star. Perhaps it was a star!"
Caius tutted disapproval. "Stars are light, Publius. These stones of yours are black. "
"They are now, Caius. But they fell as fire. Iron is black when it is cold, but heat it and it takes on a white and blinding brightness. And we are hampered by the fuel we have to heat it with! Given the fires of Heaven, who can tell how bright it might become?"
I knew there was no answer for that. Caius stared at me in perplexity.
"Anyway, " I went on, "that is the biggest I am likely to find here, unless my guess today is correct. The stone my grandfather found was more than twice that size, and by the time he smelted it, he was left with just enough metal for a dagger and the best part of a sword. That's all. " He was quick to see my chagrin. "But if you smelt all seven of them together? Would not that produce enough to fit your needs? And what of the other ten?"
I shrugged. "Perhaps. Who knows? I have no way of knowing how much metal there is in such small stones. There might be none. " Caius looked down into the valley again. "What was it that you wanted me to see?"
"A dragon's nest, Caius, bigger than all the rest combined. A mighty dragon's nest. "
"Where? In the valley?"
"Aye. In plain sight. But you must see it for yourself, with your own eyes. I cannot help you. If I did, I might not be convinced myself that you could truly see it. I looked at it for months, not knowing it was there. You know it is now. Find it for me, Caius. You too, Equus. "
Heeding the plea in my words, they began to scan the valley, and I watched them closely as they looked. I saw them discern each of the rings I had already found and identified with a cairn of stones, but nowhere could either of them see a mighty ring, try as they would. I watched Caius in particular as his gaze ranged the entire valley, from the raw cliff at one end to the lake tucked into the folding hillside at the other. He scanned each hill from top to bottom. Nothing.
Finally he spoke again. "Are you sure what I am looking for is there, Publius?"
"Aye, " I said, with more confidence than I felt. "It is there. What I am not sure of is that it is what I think it is. "
"And I should be able to see it? Now?"
"Correct. "
He tried again, sweeping from north to south, from east to west, again and again, not knowing what he was supposed to see. And then I saw him catch a shape from the corner of his eye, or an impression of a shape. He jerked to look, and it was gone. But it had been there, I knew it had been there, for I had seen the same thing the day be-fore.. l watched him move his eyes off slowly and held my breath, praying he would see it again. Then, from the quickening of his gaze, I knew he had found it again and recognized it for what it was. Now he looked straight at it and saw it clearly. Not a circle, but a segment of a circle— a clear-edged part of one. I watched his startled gaze adjusting to the size of it, and my heart began to beat faster.
"The lake, Varrus, " he whispered at last in a voice full of wonder. "The lake is a dragon's nest! But huge! Enormous!"
I leaped from my horse and dragged him down from his, pinning him to my breast and swinging him around in triumph and shouting at the top of my voice.
"I knew it, Caius! I knew you would see it! The lake is it! A huge bowl full of water! Not circular, because the hillside absorbed much of the shock. And the debris and boulders blocked the flow of water down through the valleys below, and turned the impact ring into a lake!" I set him back on his feet and together we stared down at it.
"And that explains the cattle, too, " I added, suddenly realising the truth.
Caius looked at me. "What cattle? What d'you mean?"
"The dead cattle. " I realized then that he had not heard that part of the story. "There was a herd of cattle, Jack apparently, in the valley the night the skystones landed. They were all killed, naturally enough, but there was something about it that didn't make sense. It bothered me. I thought it was highly unlikely that anyone would drive those animals all the way over the hills, into the valley, when the grazing was just as good on the other side. " I nodded down again towards the lake.
"But there's the answer. The valley must have been open at that end before the cataclysm, so it would have been accessible to the cattle, offering shelter from the winds. The upheaval caused by the skystone blocked off the access and threw up the rim that now contains the lake. "
"But didn't Meric say there had always been a lake there?"
"Aye, and there probably was. But it would have been smaller, and shallower. That's where the mud came from that coated everything the day after. The skystone must have blasted every drop of water and mud out of the lake and punched a deeper bed for it. "
I turned to Equus and he was gaping at both of us as though we had gone mad. Caius saw this too, and we both broke out in laughter.
"Equus!" I asked him, "what's the matter? Can't you see it, man?"
"Aye, I can see it. It's a massy lake! So what's all the excitement about?
How will you find a skystone at the bottom of a lake? That's what I'd like to know. "
"The same way he found the others, Equus!" Caius was jubilant. "He will dig for it!"
Now Equus knew that we were both quite mad. It was plain on his face. We fell about with laughter as he became completely confounded. Finally I took pity on him and pulled myself together enough to put his mind at ease.
"Equus, " I said gasping, "it's a simple matter of military engineering. We'll drain the lake, letting the water run down into the other valleys. Then, when the mud at the bottom of the lake has dried out, we'll dig up the skystone. "
Poor Equus! He was enormously relieved, and we soon sat down to eat the meal that we had brought with us. We had not brought much wine, but we were so light-headed that what we had was ample.
XXVII
The buck was magnificent — sleek, beautiful, graceful and not yet come to prime. He had emerged almost unnoticeably from the copse in the dawn light, solidifying magically from the low-lying mist and moving forward delicately, picking his way on tiptoe through the knee-high, dew-drenched grass of the meadow. His breath steamed visibly in the motionless air so that it seemed he was producing the mist by himself, and through the screen of young leaves that hid me from him, I could see water droplets hanging from his antlers like precious stones. Slowly, careful to make no sudden sound or motion, I drew my bowstring back towards my ear, feeling the tension of the braided sinew on my calloused fingertips and the long, lethal glide of the shaft of the iron-barbed arrow against my thumb. My drawing thumb touched my cheek and as it did so the buck froze, head up, ears forward, a perfect target. I closed one eye, sighting carefully.